The Savage Tide

Temple of Taboo Island

20

JUL/13

Synopsis of the last session

We investigated the inverted ziggurat. It was well trapped and Seaweed Jim’s summoned Bullette’s triggered them. Since the skin walker did not aggressively attack us, we retreated and returned to Far Shore.

Returning to the island, many of the trees were dead. The skin walkers are on the offensive and killing the sylvan groves. It’s estimated that it will take about a week for the skin walkers to find the central grove. The skin walker hunting groups seemed to have two casters with them.

Some of the areas of the islands are desecrated and the treants portals can’t reach into them. We ported as close to the north west corner as possible and approached the last ziggurat.

Graven used clairvoyance to survey the ziggurat. There are several Olman prisoners, several skinwalkers, and a demonic looking pirate. Beyond the ziggurat, along the mountainous wall are 5 to 6 large stone figures.

In rescuing the prisoners, we had a vigorous battle with the skin walkers and the demonic pirate. He using sniping tactics and could fly. Eventually, the party drove him off. [He used dimension door to make his escape.] We released the prisoners and used a treat portal to rescue them. We found a ledger and investigated the pyramid. Used to be dedicated to Tlaloc. The eye of Tlaloc was dropped from here into the the Aboleth city in the Underdark below the island.

One of the prisoners had a seizure and when the came out of it, proclaimed that they wanted to come with us. He was meant to go with us and help us bring things to an end. His name is Atl.

Loot from the battle:

4 Olman Bows

7 Claw Bracers

After retreating through the portal, we asked Verdant (the treant) to allow the prisoners to stay there. The ledger (written in Abyssal) discusses how many sacrifices were made and some accounting of shadow pearls.

Entries over one year:

160 sacrifices

23 of which are special sacrifices

44 shadow pearls sent below

There are check marks beside each shadow pearl except for the bottom 9

Note: We have dealt with 8

There is a two month break before the most recent entry and the entry was from several weeks ago

Our theory is that they production of shadow pearls has started up again in some way

We did not take much time and proceeded back through the portal to advance on the temple.

The Temple of Taboo Island

The entrance to the temple is set into the mountain wall and a pair of 15 foot tall stone doors. To either side are several stone statues of an ‘honor guard’. There is a residue of magic on the door – it appears to be the residue of the activities taken to taint the area.

Stieven tried to push the door open and failed. Pearl examined the doors and realized the hinges have been removed.

Refresher on the Stone of the Sun and Moon

Graven looks for secret doors on the outside with Stieven while Atl is looking to go to a fluid form and see what’s on the other side of the doors. On the other side, Atl detects a foul stench. Advancing in, he activated a trap where several poisoned spears shot at him. He retreated back to the group and told us of what he saw.

Graven detects a secret door near one of the stone honor guard statues and returns to the group. Locke takes the lead through the secret door. 200 feet down we pass through a second secret door into a room with a passage south. In the center of the room is a model ziggurat, 4 foot high with inscribed Olman runes on it – “May the blood keep safe the flesh”.

William, Pearl and Locked gave blood sacrifice into the ziggurat model. There was a secret door in the north wall that revealed a boulder when William cast knock to open it. Proceeding down the southern corridor, we set off a trap, magic in origin that probably would have caused the boulder to roll down this corridor.

We found a room with a wooden altar with blood on it. A blood trail led to a secret door. Behind it were stairs that led down to another secret door. Water covered the bottom two steps and we decided not to open the door at this time and returned above.

We proceeded east and found the entrance area Alt had found earlier. We moved north from a four way intersection. We came to a 50 ft wide, 60 ft high room with a pit dominatingvk the room (15 ft deep) with a 5 foot ledge around the edge of the room. Liquid and body parts litter within the pit. Locke noticed something moving in the liquid and fired a magic missile into it. A mound of body part rose up and started climbing the edge of the pit. A fight ensued. After a few tense minutes, we defeated the critter and it lost cohesion. Graven nearly died within it’s bowels, but we killed it before it could absorb him.

We then proceeded south past the four way intersection. We entered a room with 4 columns. Walls have carvings all over them and the floor has hundreds of flat copper rings. The rings are carved with runic symbols. Pearl picked one up to examine it. They were used in divination’s. We collect all 350 copper rings. Further south is a large room.

The room is a large circular room with bas relief carvings. There are three 7 ft tall statues and 3 circles carved into the floor. There is a large magical presence in this room. Perhaps the key of the Stone of the Sun and Moon.

Ingrained in the tile of this room are 3 rings of 16.

The three statues are dressed similarly. Seven ft tall – Olman in visage with scepters. There are some. Western has a Sun. Eastern has a Moon. Southern has a Star.

Spheres -

Smooth Brown Stone – Olman Rune – Star

Olman Rune – Sun

Olman Rune – Moon

We move the Moon, Sun, and Star stones clock wise based on the quantity of symbols around the edge of the Stone of Sun and Moon. The room is filled with swirling wind, a shaft of daylight covers the Western statues. A beam comes down of glittering light onto the Eastern statue. Finally, a third column of shimmering stars alights on the Southern statue.

We receive some divine wisdom.

In time of need, weapons can be turned.
In time of need, wind will down the wings of evil.

In Unison:
The Bow of Macutotnal, Hero of the Olman, Use It Well

The light fades and a bow remains. It is named ‘Nimbus’. Pearl takes the bow.

The bas relief around the edge tells of Olman battles against land worms. Flightless dragons with death curses. It tells of the Olman hero, Macutotnal. He managed to unify all the tribes. His achievements managed to gain the favor of the divine. Three god’s separately thought to gift him a bow. Since he knew taking one over the other’s would offend the others, so he refused. Quetzalcoatl was impressed and combined the three bows into one as a gift to him.

Returning north, we take a western passage that goes on for a while then terminates in a room. A dozen man sized niches occupy the north wall with some honored remains. There is an exit to the south. We don’t take any of the jewelry adorning the bodies and head to the south.

The hall turns west and ends in a door. There is a dusty room with an ornate pedestal on the far side with several items arranged on it. A statue of a hideous two headed monster – not Demogorgon. While similar it is different. The arms are tentacly, but end in claws. An acquatic god. Perhaps a Kopru version of Demogorgon. There is a door in the far wall of the room.

The items on the pedestal – five ivory sticks (rhythm sticks), 3 small bowls (inlaid with gold filagry), crumbling bamboo flute, remains of a feather fan. No magic is detected. We took the items and smashed the aquatic Demogorgon statue. As the statue was smashed, we seemed to be the target of a curse that the party managed to shake off.

We exit through the door to the west and continue on looping north then back east then north again. Stieven and Locke fell through a weak portion of the floor. The area we land in is flooded with water – 4 ft of water. It appears this is an ancient interrogation chamber. There are about 40 ft of weakened floor. Seaweed Jim changed into a large Air Elemental to shuttle the rest of the party across.

Heading north, we come to the remains of a make shift wall. There is a man sized hole through the wall. The rubble was on the other side of the hole. There are stairs up. At the end of the passage is a large chamber – 60’ tall. There are skin walkers present (4 with weapons). There is fading daylight seen at near the roof. There are stairs ascending on the north and south side up to a balcony.